Florida Rep. Maxwell Frost, the first Gen Z congressman, speaks alongside President Biden and Vice President Harris during a Rose Garden event about gun safety on Sept. 22, 2023.Photo:AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin
AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin
Months afterAmerica’s first Gen Z congressmanintroduced a bill that would create a federal office to establish a coordinated response to the gun violence crisis, PresidentJoe Bidenannounced his administration was doing exactly that, establishing the first-ever White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention.
President Joe Biden, Rep. Maxwell Frost and Vice President Kamala Harris walk from the Oval Office to the Rose Garden for a gun safety event on Sept. 22, 2023.Alex Wong/Getty
Alex Wong/Getty
In his own statement, Biden, 80, said the establishment of the new federal office came in the absence of “sorely-needed action” from Congress, which has yet to establish widely supported legislation that would enact universal background checks and ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.
“I’ll continue to urge Congress to take commonsense actions that the majority of Americans support," Biden said in a press release, adding: “But in the absence of that sorely-needed action, the Office of Gun Violence Prevention along with the rest of my Administration will continue to do everything it can to combat the epidemic of gun violence that is tearing our families, our communities, and our country apart.”
Also in attendance at the official announcement event were families of gun violence victims, includingRhonda Hart, the mother of a14-year-old girlwho died in a2018 mass shooting at Santa Fe High Schoolin Texas, which killed 10 people.
“I feel it’s something we’ve been waiting on a long time," Hart tells PEOPLE. “Progress on anything gun violence related takes so much time. I’m glad we got this big win today.”
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In June 2022, the president signed into law the “Bipartisan Safer Communities Act,” which enacts commonsense gun laws and provides funding for mental health support and anti-violence programs.
But Biden has also acknowledged that those moves aren’t enough, pleading with legislators to enact legislation that would ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, require safe storage of guns, end gun manufacturers’ immunity from liability, and enact universal background checks.
source: people.com
